Multiple Ball Pythons

[ss10gotanks]

Hello, I am just curious as to how people take care of bigger collections of ball pythons. and maybe techniques or tricks on making it easier. For instance cleaning or even on feeding day. I intend on breeding in a couple of years, and right now i have 4 ball pythons. I keep them on a certain feeding schedule and sometimes half of them eat, or one. it varies. how do you do this on a broader scale? I feed live so I like to watch to make sure nothing bad happens (lol to the snake) Also I try to handle all of my snakes several times a week to socialize them. What do you do when you have 20-30-40 snakes? Do you handle your main collection and not worry about the others as much because their young and youll sell them? Anyone have big collections with incite or even just multiple bp's. Anyways just curious as I am getting 2 more females before I let my collection grow to breeding wieght, and I want to be effiencent at taking care of them. Oh and tips on switching multiple snakes from live to f/t

[Ladybugzcrunch]

Make sure the mouse is nice and warm. Bp's are pretty dumb and think it is alive if it is warm and "moving". I have two Bp's that will not take a F/T if it is not warm enough. Warm it a bit more and they go right for it. Buy a little notebook for each Bp and keep it on their enclosure. Record every thing you do and on what day for that animal; e.g. bm, urine, shed, feed, weight. That way when you forget what Bp did what on what day, you have a reference.

[Kinra]

Make sure the mouse is nice and warm. Bp's are pretty dumb and think it is alive if it is warm and "moving". I have two Bp's that will not take a F/T if it is not warm enough. Warm it a bit more and they go right for it. Buy a little notebook for each Bp and keep it on their enclosure. Record every thing you do and on what day for that animal; e.g. bm, urine, shed, feed, weight. That way when you forget what Bp did what on what day, you have a reference.

Yeah, switching to f/t isn't that hard. I have a female who ate live when I bought her and it was pretty easy to get her to switch. Just make sure it's warm, I put mine in warm water, and you may need to wiggle it a little. Make sure you have feeding tongs, or you'll probably get bit. As for managing multiple BPs, I keep track of everything in a spreadsheet, but I'm also a computer geek so that makes sense. . As long as you keep track of everything you shouldn't have too much trouble. I don't think people with very large collections handle them everyday. I think with some of the big breeders the snakes only get handled during cage cleaning.

[TheSnakeEye]

First off get yourself a rack if you dont have one already. If you want simplicity, get a rack, lay down some newspaper, put a water bowl and add the snake. Simple. I feed my 3 live so it's not hard to monitor, but once you start getting a nice sized collection I'd definitely recommend get them ALL to switch over to F/T and getting them to the point where you don't even have to move the mouse. Just place in and they go. Funny story, the other day I threw a rat inside one of the tubs and it didn't move so I guess the snake thought it was dead already so she tried to start swallowing it, immediately the rat went nuts so the snake coiled. But at leats now I know she'll at least take prekilled.

Anyway, if you get yourself a good rack, and get them used to eating f/t without having to make the rat look alive, you should be good. Also, "socializing" so many snakes gets hard. I think you'll be ok with just making sure they dont strike at you when you go in there. Unless you want to go around carrying them. But I'm sure no big breeder does that. They just handle them enough to make sure they don't get bitten.

[mainbutter]

1) For instance cleaning or even on feeding day.

I have a variety of species, all on different schedules. It gets complicated, but I plan out when to offer food, clean cages as needed, and write it all down on a google spreadsheet document.

2) I keep them on a certain feeding schedule and sometimes half of them eat, or one. it varies.

Again, I just use my document. If it's been long enough since the last successful feeding, the snake gets offered food. If they refuse, then I wait until the next scheduled feeding day.

3) I feed live so I like to watch to make sure nothing bad happens (lol to the snake)

Feeding F/T is paramount to my sanity. I may get more refusals with one or two individuals in my collection by feeding F/T, but every animal in my collection takes F/T if they get hungry enough. Really the only big pain in the butt for feeding is our male rainbow boa, so he gets special attention to try to get him to take F/T more regularly.

4) Also I try to handle all of my snakes several times a week to socialize them. What do you do when you have 20-30-40 snakes?

We handle all of our snakes. Some only get maybe 5 minutes of handling a week, or less depending on their mood (see nippy young carpet python or blood python stereotypes that sometimes turn out true). Others get handled more often. I can guarantee you though that businesses with hundreds if not thousands of snakes don't handle many of their animals much more than picking them up to clean tubs. In addition, plenty of breeders don't handle animals who are breeding, so as to not add any undue stress.